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From Shakespeare's England to jazz age Paris to surfing in Byron Bay, a wild, bittersweet, time-travelling story about love, loss and living in the moment.

'The first rule is that you don't fall in love. There are other rules too, but that is the main one. No falling in love. No staying in love. No daydreaming of love. Because otherwise, of course, you slowly lose your mind . . .'

Tom Hazard is a history teacher living a quiet suburban life in a Cathedral town in England. He likes his job but has no real friends, spends his time on the internet or playing the piano, and pushes away anyone who tries to get close to him.

But Tom has a secret. He suffers from progeria, a condition that causes the body to age ten times slower than normal. He looks 40 but is actually 408. He won't die for another few centuries. In his lifespan he has had time to learn 13 languages, has become an expert at fighting and piano playing, but all of this has a cost. He must change his identity every few years to avoid discovery. And as he has learned the risks of love and the pain it can cause, he has turned away from other people.

How to Stop Time is his story.

About the Author

Matt Haig is the number one bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and The Humans and four other books for adults. As a writer for children and young adults he has won the Blue Peter Book Award, the Smarties Book Prize and been shortlisted three times for the Carnegie Medal. His work has been translated into 30 languages.

a marvellous read!

5

"…now I often want to climb back into that time before. Before I knew Rose, before I knew what would happen to my mother, before, before, before… To cling to who I was, right at the beginning when I was just a small boy with a long name who responded to time and grew older like everybody else. But there is never a way back into the before. All you can do with the past is carry it around, feeling its weight slowly increase, praying it never crushes you completely."
How To Stop Time is the sixth adult novel by British author, Matt Haig. Progeria is a condition in which the sufferer ages much faster than normal. Tom Hazard has the opposite: anageria. He ages much more slowly than the rest of us. It's 2020, he's just taken a job as a history teacher in a London high school, and he looks about forty-one. He's actually 439, so he has experienced some of the stuff he's teaching, first hand.
Living so long perhaps sounds like it could be advantageous, but even in the twenty-first century, when witch finders are no longer a threat, failure to develop wrinkles and other signs of ageing attracts notice, and not all of that is benign. This necessitates a nomadic lifestyle, moving on before close ties can form and questions begin to be asked. Falling in love is definitely not a good idea.
"For years now I had convinced myself that the sadness of the memories weighed more and lasted longer than the moments of happiness themselves. So I had, through some crude emotional mathematics, decided it was better not to seek out love or companionship or even friendship. To be a little island in the alba archipelago, detached from humanity's continent, instead."
The premise is certainly original and intriguing, and fans of Claire North's work may notice some plot similarities (high praise). The narrative races around in time and place, but each time and location is clearly stated so this does not lead to confusion, but does allow Haig to give the reader a taste of Elizabethan London,

Cloggie Downunder

Thirroul

2017-09-22

How to Stop Time

5.01

0.0

A rollicking time-hopping fantasy . . . How to Stop Time will provoke wonder and delight * * Observer * * Hugely entertaining -- JOHN BOYNE * * Irish Times * * Outlandish . . . heartwarming, perceptive prose -- ANITA SETHI * * Daily Telegraph * * An imaginative, ambitious novel by an author with an infectious passion for history and the human condition * * Sunday Express * * Haig writes exquisitely from the perspective of the heart-sore outsider, but at their most moving his novels reveal the unbearable beauty of ordinary life * * Guardian * * Let Matt Haig take you on a journey . . . Brings every era to vibrant life . . . original and fascinating * * Stylist * * Tear-jerking, time-hopping romance * * Mail on Sunday * * A fabulous book -- STEPHEN FRY How to Stop Time is a beautiful, and necessary book. I feel very lucky to have read it. It is magical, intriguing and at times, very sad. A triumph -- MARIAN KEYES Absolutely terrific -- GRAHAM NORTON